Theme 1 - Professional knowledge
Know students and how they learn
Being a pre-service teacher and having observed and taught in a few different schools, I found building a good rapport with students, learning their names etc so important from day one as it makes the students feel welcome, build a sense of trust and security. A good strategy when beginning the school year was to listen in on student conversations while walking around the room as they were working, learn about their interests, needs and ways that they prefer to learn or do things. This has enabled me to build a fantastic and trustful relationship with them, give me ideas in my direction of teaching and has also become a great conversation starter while on yard duties.
I believe the classroom environment and layout play an important role in teaching and learning. Getting to know how students learn, the ways they work well (for example; who they are seated with, or where they are positioned in the classroom) and what will assist them in their learning were areas that I found I needed to consider in relation to their learning.
This is discussed further in theme 2.
For Valentines Day this year I made cookies with my 3/4 students. It was wonderful to see different learning areas come out and students who have talent in cooking/baking really shine through. This does go to demonstrate an aspect of Gardner's multiple intelligences model that everybody is better at different things and everybody learns in different ways. All students were engaged and really enjoyed the lesson.
This is discussed further in theme 2.
For Valentines Day this year I made cookies with my 3/4 students. It was wonderful to see different learning areas come out and students who have talent in cooking/baking really shine through. This does go to demonstrate an aspect of Gardner's multiple intelligences model that everybody is better at different things and everybody learns in different ways. All students were engaged and really enjoyed the lesson.
Throughout my placements I have had students with different needs such as; diabetes, hearing impaired, ADHD, behavioral problems etc. These have enabled me to learn about them, gain experience and develop strategies to dealing with them as well as learning how to modify lessons to cater for them.
For example; finding out this year that one of my grade 3 students has diabetes I immediately researched the condition to develop an awareness of it, learnt the management plan, his routines, strategies and steps to assist in situations such as administering the correct amount of lollies/carbohydrates when going into a ‘hypo’. I learnt to adapt my lessons such as fitness to ensure he is able to participate, his glucose tester is with him at all times, that he drinks alot of water and I have signed his book every time he eats/tests.
For example; finding out this year that one of my grade 3 students has diabetes I immediately researched the condition to develop an awareness of it, learnt the management plan, his routines, strategies and steps to assist in situations such as administering the correct amount of lollies/carbohydrates when going into a ‘hypo’. I learnt to adapt my lessons such as fitness to ensure he is able to participate, his glucose tester is with him at all times, that he drinks alot of water and I have signed his book every time he eats/tests.
With the assistance of my mentor, I have had the experience of developing an individual learning plan (ILP) for a troubled student this year. This enabled me to realise the importance of having ILP’s and how effective they can be in being able to manage the student, as well as developing short/long term goals.
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Throughout my lessons, I have been considerate of all students in trying to add variety and teach in a number of different ways to suit their range of learning styles as I believe everybody has their preferred method of learning. For example; I am a visual and kinaesthetic learner, however just because they are my methods of learning that is no exception into thinking that is the only way I am going to teach as others may prefer different ways.
Know the content and how to teach it
As an intern teacher, I believe one of the most important aspects of teaching is knowing the content you teach (major familiarity with the curriculum; AusVels/Australian Curriculum) and also the purpose of what you are teaching. There have been times where students have asked me a question and I was not entirely sure of the answer, however I believe this is all part of the teaching and learning process. With this situation, we all got onto the computer and tried to find the answer, which not only helped them learn the answer but also builds on other skills as well such ICT. Teaching to me, is a never ending learning process. With familiarity of the content comes the importance of being able to plan lessons and teach in sequence, which I have experienced and completed extensively throughout my placements.
An effective teaching and learning tool that I have become familiar with this year throughout my placement was developing ‘learning intentions’ and ‘success criteria's'.
I had the experience of implementing them in all of my lessons that I planned and taught.
I believe they are excellent as they assists not only myself (the teacher) to keep my lessons on track but also students (the learners) to know what it is they are learning, why they are learning it and what it is they should have learnt/completed by the end of the lesson.
I noticed that writing them both on the board at the beginning of every lesson made a huge difference in their learning, and when asked what they had learnt at the end of the day they were able to explain with no hesitation. I intend to incorporate and make extensive use of this tool in my future teaching.
Varying the content, being able to explore different ways of teaching and finally teaching in different contexts is important as I believe it increases student engagement and motivation such as using different spaces and places like outside. For example; for a particular maths activity last term involving shapes, I got my grade 3/4 students to try and recognise the different types of shapes that were outside around the school. Not only did this engage them but they were able to relate to things outside of their usual learning environment (the classroom).
Differentiation of content is such an important aspect of teaching and learning. Completing the unit of ‘gifted education’ while at university and developing a differentiated unit of work enabled me to grasp a deeper understanding of just how important differentiation is when teaching. I was not aware of how often gifted children aren’t identified or are often mistaken as the ‘naughty ones’ and are frequently ignored by teachers in the classroom. As a developing teacher, I have already to differentiate and also plan to do everything necessary to ensure that my students are treated equally, modify/adapt all content to suit students and all different levels of ability are catered for.
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